Chapter 221

PHA – Chapter 221 – Catkin Town Elkite

The catkins’ settlement was situated in a remote location quite far from Holl City. However, beastkins were considered a relatively special group among the human kingdoms, including the Gryffin Kingdom. Thus, the Gryffin Kingdom had set up teleportation arrays in the various beastkin settlements located within its borders, allowing for ease of travel to these beastkins’ settlements.

There was a teleportation hub in Holl City that allowed teleportation to the various beastkin settlements. However, as teleportation was quite costly, trains were still the primary mode of transportation for most people. Only during emergencies or special occasions would people choose to travel via teleportation.

The teleportation hub was built in the heart of Holl City. After leaving the March Academy, Ciel and Alice quickly reached the teleportation hub. Although Alice had heard of the teleportation hub before, this was the first time she was visiting this place.

Few people used the teleportation hub’s services, so the building saw fewer upgrades over time. As a result, unlike the other buildings in Holl City, the teleportation hub didn’t give off a modern feeling. Instead, the building gave off an antique feeling both inside and outside. It was especially true for the building’s interior. The walls and stairs were made entirely out of wood, and walking into the building gave Alice the feeling of being in a fantasy world for the first time.

There were no employees in the teleportation hub, and everything was essentially self-service. Meanwhile, unlike Alice, Ciel had already visited the teleportation hub many times before, so she was very familiar with this place. After walking up to the computer in the middle of the lobby and manipulating the interface on it for a moment, she quickly returned to Alice with two small crystal plates in hand. Then, she handed one of the plates to Alice:

“Hold onto it properly. The teleportation array won’t work on you if you’re not holding onto this plate later.”

Alice accepted the plate from Ciel and looked at it. There were several magic runes engraved on the crystal plate. There were also texts written inside the plate using mana, the texts indicating the plate’s ID and destination.

The name “Elkite Municipality” was written in the destination section. That should be the name of the catkins’ settlement.

Afterward, Alice followed Ciel to a room on the third floor. All of the rooms she passed by on the way here had a sign with the name of a place written on it. However, even though Alice had already memorized the names of the various human kingdoms and the well-known cities in these kingdoms, she found that she knew none of the names she saw in the building.

Alice guessed that the names written on these rooms all belonged to beastkin settlements. Hence, their names looked so unfamiliar to her.

Ciel brought Alice straight to the room with the word “Elkite” written on it. Then, after Ciel opened the door, Alice saw that the room only had the bare essentials. Apart from a large teleportation array in the middle of the room, the only other objects in the room were a bunch of ordinary-looking equipment and a vending machine.

“It looks like a waiting room,” Alice muttered. When she looked at the teleportation array, she suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Andusia, who was playing dead on her shoulder. Then, she asked in a quiet voice, “Say, will you also get teleported with me, Andusia?”

According to Ciel’s explanation, the teleportation array would not affect those without a corresponding crystal plate. Meanwhile, Andusia’s current figurine body might be made out of wood, but there was a bona fide soul housed within it. If the teleportation array determined passengers based on their souls, Andusia might get left behind when Alice got teleported.

Andusia was rendered speechless when she heard Alice’s concern. However, she didn’t make any big reactions since Ciel was in front of them. Although there was that small incident gym storage room, Ciel still wasn’t aware she was a living being. It would also be troublesome to explain things to the catkin, so Andusia kept her voice down as she whispered into Alice’s ear, “Put the plate on me.”

Search h0sted n0vel for the original.

Alice did as told and put the crystal plate on Andusia’s body. She also undid the Forest Crystal in Andusia’s body.

Alice was mostly certain that Andusia had already given up on her hatred against humanity, so it didn’t matter even if she returned Andusia her power. She could also prevent Andusia’s weak body from breaking should any accidents occur.

Meanwhile, Andusia smiled when she sensed her power being liberated. Then, she injected her mana into the crystal plate and circulated it around the plate for a bit before retracting it.

“That should do it,” Andusia said as she passed the tablet back to Alice.

To prevent magicians from using the teleportation array without paying, it was only natural that the Gryffin Kingdom would set up some precautionary measures to prevent others from modifying the crystal tablets. Unfortunately, the security measure implemented was lacking against a full-fledged Demon King like Andusia. As a result, she easily deciphered the security spell and gave herself the authority to use the teleportation array.

The kingdom might have considered that the security spell couldn’t stop individuals on the level of the Hero and the Demon King. However, the kingdom probably never thought that a Demon King would actually try to hitch a free ride.

After Ciel tapped her finger on the crystal panel next to the teleportation array a few times, Alice saw the teleportation array lighting up and felt mana filling the room. Then, accompanied by a vibration of the crystal tablet in her hand, her body suddenly experienced a sense of weightlessness.

A few seconds later, Alice felt the sense of weightlessness disappear. At the same time, the glow the teleportation array gave off dimmed and disappeared. Although Alice saw no change to the room’s interior, Ciel had walked out of the teleportation array and opened the door.

Outside the room wasn’t the teleportation hub Alice remembered. Instead, it was a spacious street with wooden houses lining it. There were also people walking on the street outside, and every one of these people had a pair of cat ears and a cat tail growing out of their bodies.

Aside from catkins like Ciel, who looked mostly like humans, Alice also spotted some catkins with fur covering their bodies. Rather than humans, these catkins looked like large bipedal cats.

“This is Elkite, a settlement for catkins,” Ciel said, nodding in satisfaction when she saw the surprised look on Alice’s face. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to meet with the chieftain.”

Alice nodded. Then, she followed Ciel while looking around curiously. The catkins on the street had also noticed Alice walking out of the teleportation house and directed similarly curious gazes at her.

“The catkins, huh… How nostalgic…” Andusia muttered softly on Alice’s shoulder. “I used to have a friend who was a catkin. Unfortunately…”